Powder Coating my Heckler

It seems that most people view powder coating as more durable and longer lasting than paint as well as being slightly cheaper.

It most likely is but for the purposes of a MTB is it really necessary?

As I said my two day old 2 pack paint job took a big hit from a tree trunk without any damage and I was told two pack is very sturdy.

So to me it seems that Powder coat has a more limited range of finishes and colours, "could" and this is very loose cause the frame to weaken and is a bit patchy in terms of who does it as some PC's are better than others.

Windridge coatings were at the bike show and I've lifted this from their site

Can my bike frame be powder coated?
Any metal that can withstand 220 degrees Celsius can be powder coated, this includes the following:
Conventional aluminum and mild steel frames.
Frames made from Reynolds 525, 531, 725, 753 tubing that are often silver soldered or brazed.
Chromium-Molybdenum Steels have a high strength to low weight ratio but are still predominantly steel.
Titanium in its unalloyed condition is as strong as some steels but 45% lighter.
We cannot powder coat carbon fiber frames.

The powder coaters I use have a reception room with 3 walls of colour discs from flat to metallic to pearl all with laquer opetions. They can't do fades or designs but I did have the back end of a steel frame chromed way back and the front end powdered and it turned out really well.

They specialise in motorbike stuff and when Saracen had a better reputation back in the 90's they did all their frames too.

If you pick a full powder coating place rather than an industrial shop who knock out limited colours you'll get a good choice.

I couldn't find any info about Orange but its a sporting bet they use the same material, most manufactures do. If any firms other than Santa Cruz do post weld heat treatment, which is essential to keep the props of 6061-t6 , is another matter entirely.

I spoke with Orange the other day and they said they buy in untreated aluminium sheet and tubes and do the post-weld heat treating themselves. They were reluctant to go into the details of what the treatments were (i.e. temps and times etc) but they said there were at least two, and after each one the frame is returned to the straightening table.
I asked them if they thought that the the heating process during powdercoating might weaken their frames and they were confident that it would not. They said they've been recoating frames for years using standard powdercoating methods with no adverse effects. I asked them where the most common frame breaks that they deal with occur. I assumed that they say the weld areas, but they insisted that breaks are no less likely to occur mid tube/box.
I hope there's some useful info in here on this topic for you all.
If you disagree with or would like to challenge Orange on any of this, then please call them direct. I got the impression that they would love to hear from you.

you want me to chop up an old frame and test it? sort out ur arguments?
i dont think itll make a blind bit of difference because at 130C the temp is so low that diffusion will take billions of hours to occur to an extent were the frame will be degraded... but with an oven, tensile testing machine and hardness tester i can sort out what affects it has on i think 7000 series alumnium...only problem is the frames are dodgey shapes...and hard to test...so if anybody has a spare (broken) rear end of a orange 5...that would be alot better because their more angled and easier to test.

looked at a diagram...heat treatment at 190C for an hour has no affect what so ever... so 130 is fine, these heat treatments take days, so aslong as its gonna be a 130C for an hours thats fine...but i recomend taking it to a proffesional place who speacilise in al frames. ovens can be 100C out if they rnt maintained...thats why people have had bad exoeriences....